


Delinquent days are here again

by aimlessAnemone



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alcohol, Alternate Universe - College/University, College, Dancing, Drunkenness, M/M, Partying, Snowball Fight, i changed names of specific places but really it's pretty obviously a certain school, it's lance's birthday!, it's safe to say they're all at least 21 in this au but there are innocent drunken shenanigans, thinly veiled expy of my uni
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-14
Updated: 2017-04-08
Packaged: 2018-09-24 06:46:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,268
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9708989
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aimlessAnemone/pseuds/aimlessAnemone
Summary: Lance's birthday is on a weekend this year and Pidge and Hunk are making sure he has a memorable time at one of the big queer parties of the semester. Wait, is that the super competitive kid from Lance's freshman writing class? Lance is too drunk to aim a snowball at him, but it sure works to grab his attention...





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Yeah, I literally went to a party over the weekend and thought about Klance while "Shut Up and Dance" played. It was even one of my friend's birthdays. I have ZERO imagination. There will be more than two chapters; probably a number more since I'm making each chapter pretty short. Um, I have a lot of classwork and am working on another Klance fic right now so I can't guarantee updates super often, but since I'm just going through memory for this one (with a few embellishments, natch) it shouldn't be too difficult to spit out. Enjoy :) Oh, and happy Valentines Day! <3

       Lance, Pidge and Hunk giggled together as they haphazardly crossed the street heading toward campus. Lance was wobbling a little but he had his friends on either side of him, ready to steady him should he slip in the slush on the sidewalk. The snow, still a few inches deep, was melting, and the weather was relatively mild for the end of winter.  

       “Oh man, tonight’s gonna be great,” Lance shouted, a bit too loud for the situation. “Pidge, Hunk, are you guys pumped to dance with me?” Having transcended the point of sobriety where volume control is valued as a skill, Lance’s excitement made a small group of girls walking back from campus look at each other and laugh at how loud he was being.

       “Yeah!” Hunk responded, his voice about as loud as Lance’s. “We’re making sure you’re having the best birthday of your life!”

       “I wouldn’t want to miss you being drunk,” Pidge countered. “But I’m also excited to see an actual queer party.”

       At that moment, Lance’s tenuous attention turned to someone walking about fifty feet in front of them. “Oh my god, guys, it’s Keith! I’d recognize that hair anywhere! We _have_ to get him to come with us!” Lance stooped down to pick up some slushy snow (at the perfect temperature for packing) and laughed conspiratorially.

       “Hey bud,” Hunk knelt down to try to pry the snowball from Lance’s hands, “let’s think about what we’re doing for a second. Your birthday doesn’t give you a free pass to hit on people you’re barely friends with.”

       “He’s gonna hate it. It’ll be great!” was all Lance replied with before pelting the sizeable chunk in Keith’s direction. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it missed. To add insult to injury, the snowball didn’t make it far enough to give Lance the satisfaction of catching Keith’s attention. At this, Lance groaned with an “Aw, come on!” and ran ahead with another snowball to get a better angle.

       “Aw geez,” Hunk remarked at the scene playing out before him. “We should intercede.”

       “Who is this guy, Hunk? And you realize you said ‘hit on,’ right? Freudian slip?” Pidge picked up the pace to keep up with commotion.

       “Oh, I meant it. Keith was in a writing seminar with us freshman year. Lance made everything into a competition with him--who had the longer paper, who used more primary sources in their bibliography, who made it to class first--their TA thought it was hilarious and goaded them on even more. It was a pretty unsustainable way to be a student, though, and they haven’t really talked much since then.”

       “Huh. I feel like my freshman year was really lacking in comparison.”

       “Yeah, I don’t think so. You didn’t need someone competing with you for who could stay up the longest and still write code that made sense. You do that enough on your own.”

       “And yet I’m still the boss. So you think Lance has a thing for Keith?”

       “I _know_ he has a thing for Keith. Lance joined the LGBT Coalition our second semester in an attempt to figure out his identity. He never specifically told me that he started questioning his sexuality because of Keith, but there was that context…”

       “Well, how should we approach our birthday boy wingman duties tonight?”

       “First, let’s see if we can salvage this inevitable mess.” Hunk gestured to Keith, who had finally turned around to notice Lance nearing him, “Then, let’s see how things go.”

       “Sounds good. Tonight’s gonna be an experience, no doubt about that.”


	2. Chapter 2

       A mass of wet snow went whizzing by Keith’s head. He yanked off his headphones and turned around, yet unaware that his evening was going to be far different than he had planned. There was a guy running toward him with another snowball in his hands.  _ Lance? _ Keith noted the similar haircut and the same jacket he had worn nearly every day freshman year. When was the last time he’d seen this kid?  _ Probably at the end of last semester _ , he thought.  _ He had a cute girl with him at Spring Fest _ . Keith recalled not saying hello.  _ The band was good, though. Something about space? Space travel? _ While he was trying to remember the band’s name, Lance caught up with him.

       “Ha! Keith! Surrender now! It’s my birthday, so come dancing with us!”

       Keith stared at Lance with a blank face. “What? I have work.”

       “It’s Saturday night! And my birthday! Come or I’ll throw this.” Lance hefted the snowball menacingly in Keith’s direction.

       “Okay, first of all,” in a swift movement, Keith grabbed a snowball of his own and hit Lance square in the chest with it. “Second, I do have a problem set due Monday.”

       Lance laughed. “Ha! You hit me! You’re probably nearly done with that problem set. And you have tomorrow to do it.”

       Keith didn’t feel like arguing, and Lance had a point. Keith had been on his way to the late night bagel shop to eat dinner, anyway. He sighed. He could’ve said no, but curiosity got the best of him. “I have to eat something, first.” 

       Lance responded with a whoop of excitement. “Hey guys! Keith says he’ll come with us!” Pidge and Hunk had nearly caught up. They all met in the middle of the bridge connecting one of the residential campuses to main campus. Considering his slight drunken state, Lance performed acceptable introductions. “You remember Hunk from freshman year, right? And this is Pidge. She came here to play soccer in her disappeared brother’s place. Don’t let anyone know she’s really a girl.” Well, maybe it wasn’t a  _ great _ introduction. “Pidge, this is Keith. He’s a pal from freshman year.”

       “Hey.” Pidge offered. “I don’t know what he’s talking about. I’m a CS major. Junior. We all live in the same house.”

       “Cool. Where are you guys headed tonight?”

       “The Cabin.” Hunk gave Keith a convivial hug. “Nice to see you, man. I can’t believe it’s been 3 years since you used to come over to our dorm and do your homework with us. You should come over to the Falls sometime. We do house dinner during the week.”

       “I’ll keep that in mind, thanks. Speaking of dinner, I should eat something if I’m going to join you.”

       “There’s a food truck on the way to the Cabin. Have you ever had a PMP?” Pidge flicked through her phone to double check the food truck hours for Saturday. “Yus, it’s open.”

       “I haven’t. I’ve heard it’s something you have to try before you graduate, though. Better do it while I have a few months left.”

       “Ha!” Distracted with socializing, Lance had used the opportunity to finally whack Keith with a snowball. Keith grumbled and knelt down to pick up another. “Hunk’s perfected his own version of the poor man’s pizza. It’s so good, we have it nearly every week at the Falls. We’re having it on Wednesday this week. You could come, but you’d have to cook with me. Whoever makes the most pizzas wins!”

       Pidge, the least versed in Lance and Keith’s rivalry, looked on with confusion. “No wonder you said it was unsustainable,” she whispered to Hunk. “Let’s start herding them to food and the party.”

       In a grave, mocking voice, Hunk responded: “Don’t worry. I know what to do. Come on!” With that, he took off running toward the residential campus down the hill, yelling insults at Keith and Lance. Pidge followed, hitting the arguing boys with two expertly thrown snowballs and blowing a raspberry back at them. Like carp in a lake thrown bread, they took the bait immediately and followed after them. None of them could imagine exactly how the rest of the night would play out, but they all liked how it was looking so far, for one reason or another.


	3. Oh.

“Is this the place?” A towering, old house stood before the quartet. Light only shone through a few of the windows and no one was going in or out through the front door.

“I dunno. It seems pretty quiet for a party.” 

“Guys,” Lance grabbed Keith by the hand, “there’s an entrance to the basement around back. C’mon!” 

Sure enough, as the group rounded the back of the building, they could hear a steady bass beat growing louder. A few people holding red cups stood around the door leading to the basement, chatting. A couple sat in some plastic lawn chairs by an indentation in the snow that was probably used as a fire pit in more clement weather, far too underdressed for being outside but perhaps warm enough from the booze and the dancing and each other’s company to not be that bothered by the cold. 

Just inside the doorway, someone sat at a table collecting money for the entrance fee. Keith yanked his arm out of Lance’s to grab his wallet. “Ugh, you didn’t tell me there was an entrance fee. Can I pay with card?”

Hunk made his way to the front of the group. “It’s cool, buddy, I’ve got cash. But now you have to come to dinner on Wednesday and cook with us.” Pidge and Lance looked expectantly at Keith. Keith sighed.

“I have a prelim coming up but okay, yeah, I’ll figure out how to make time for dinner.You’re all so needy, you know that?” Keith sighed as he looked across the veritable sea of people dancing. “Let’s find the drinks so I can stand being this close to so many sweaty drunks.”

Hunk and Lance lit up. “Hey Pidge,” Hunk asked, “can you work your shortie scouting magic for us?

It was Pidge’s turn to sigh. “Yeah, but if I see a cute girl I’m not coming back.”

“Hey, you know our motto! Your co-op is your family. You look out for your family.”

“And you’ve driven that one into the ground with how many times you’ve used it as an excuse. It’s meaningless to me now.” Pidge winked and ducked into the crowd, a move that effectively obscured her from view. 

Keith looked on in some confusion. “You guys are kind of bossy. Why does Pidge listen to you?”

“Oh, she doesn’t, really.”

“Yeah,” Keith chimed in. “About half the time she doesn’t come back and we find the drinks ourselves. It’s basically just a cute ritual now that we do at parties. You know, it’s not a rager unless Pidge gets lost finding the drinks for us! If she wants to dance with us, she’ll find us. Hunk’s tall and easy to spot.” Hunk did a mock salute. “Let’s go dance!”

Lance grabbed both Hunk’s and Keith’s arms this time and led them to a corner that had room for a few more merrymakers. A Lady Gaga song boomed from speakers that had the bass turned all the way up. “A classic ganthem!” Lance shouted as he began to dance.

“A ganthem?” Keith hesitantly bobbed to the beat.

“A gay anthem! You hear Lady Gaga and you  _ know _ what kind of a party it is, or at least has the potential to be!”

“Oh. Who’s Lady Gaga?”

Hunk raised an eye at Keith. Lance positively sputtered. “You’ve gotta be joking. Joking! How?”

Keith shrugged. “I’m not drunk enough for this kind of music.” On cue, Pidge appeared in the middle of their three-person circle.

“Keith, for you.” She handed him a pretty full plastic cup. “Watched them break the seal on the bottle myself. Guaranteed safe for consumption. Well, as safe as 80 proof can be.” She turned to Hunk and Lance. “Since you two are such close co-op family, you can share this one.” She winked at Hunk and handed him the cup. 

Lance looked on disdainfully. “Hey come on, it’s my birthday! I want my own!”

“Pace yourself. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I actually did meet a cute girl. I’ll see if she wants to dance with us.” With that, Pidge slipped back into the crowd. 

As soon as Pidge disappeared, Hunk handed their ‘shared’ drink to a stranger in the crowd, who took it as fast as they could shout, “Thanks!” Keith eyed Hunk questioningly. “What? Someone has to make sure everyone gets home safely tonight. And look over there.” 

Following Hunk’s gaze, Keith could just barely see the top of Lance’s head bobbing among a small crowd of partygoers. “Oh, he’s fast.”

“Yeah. He’ll be fine, but it is his birthday. And I like to be cautious!” Hunk headed toward the particularly jovial group. “Let’s dance!”

In a stroke of rare courtesy, some of the dancers parted to allow Keith and Hunk into their circle. Lance was in the center, dancing quite energetically with a red faced, good-looking guy. A feeling of combined nervousness and excitement hit Keith like a pang when he saw how carefree Lance and his partner looked. He took a hearty swig of his drink and stepped in closer.

When Lance spotted Keith in the crowd, he waved and walked over to him, leaving his partner to dance with someone who quickly took his place. “Keith!” he yelled a little too close to Keith’s ear, “I found you! And you have a drink. Gimme a sip.” With that, Lance grabbed the cup with one hand and Keith’s wrist with the other. He finished off the drink (there wasn’t a whole lot left, anyway) and set the empty cup on a nearby table, then grabbed Keith’s other wrist. 

Keith felt that pang in his chest again and suddenly realized why their rivalry had been so heated freshman year. His eyes widened.  _ Oh _ .


End file.
